


CeeCee the Cat and the Terrible Horrible No-Good Very Bad Day

by anothercrazymom



Category: Hive Mind Series - Janet Edwards
Genre: Canon Autistic Character, Canon from a different point of view, Cat Point of View, Devoted animal companion, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:34:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29045448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anothercrazymom/pseuds/anothercrazymom
Summary: The story of how Beckett ended up in Amber's Telepath Unit, as told by CeeCee the Cat.
Relationships: CeeCee & Beckett (Hive Mind)
Kudos: 7





	CeeCee the Cat and the Terrible Horrible No-Good Very Bad Day

CeeCee was tired. She was tired of moving. She was tired of working. She was tired of everything. It had been a long day. No, that did not describe the unimaginable exhaustion that this day had brought.

It had started off normally, if anything in a Telepath unit was ever normal. Beckett, her human, had been staying up late working on the latest project he had been given. Usually, this was good. Usually, a busy Beckett was a happy Beckett. But the telepath was causing so much tension that even being busy was not enough to make Beckett happy. CeeCee didn’t much like Keith. He made Beckett upset. As much as CeeCee liked being petted and loved Beckett, Keith was a miserable excuse for a human and she would give up the extra petting if it meant that Keith would stay away from her human.

Beckett sat in the corner of the Tactical center. His desk was in the back as far away from the chaos of emergency runs as possible. Today he was under the desk trying to avoid the noise that was Keith ranting about something. Beckett had turned the noise cancelling of his headphones to the highest possible setting, adjusted the lighting to be as low contrast as he could read and sat with his back to the rest of the room.

CeeCee wondered why he didn't simply move to his room or the dedicated quiet room and work on whatever this project was there. The leader man Gaius had been agreeable about this many times before. They had been there earlier and it had been a welcome respite from the chaos, but Keith had demanded that everyone be present for his latest tirade about ungrateful people. CeeCee was not grateful for Keith. But she was a cat, so maybe Keith wasn’t insulting her. Probably not. Keith liked insulting everyone.

CeeCee stretched and kneaded her paws across Beckett’s back. She was careful not to hurt him. He was her human after all, but she couldn’t help but dream of sticking her claws in Keith. He always seemed to make Beckett stressed and neither she nor Beckett needed more stress in their lives.

Finally Keith left. CeeCee climbed down from her perch on Beckett’s back and walked over to her food bowl. She wasn't really all that hungry or even all that thirsty, but she was ready to move around a bit and there was no telling when Keith would be back and her services would be urgently needed again. She meowed and peeked around the corner of the desk. The humans were busy at work talking amongst themselves.

The leader human Gaius walked closer.

“Hi, CeeCee. I know if you are here then Beckett must be too. Mind if I talk to him for a minute?”

CeeCee purred. As far as humans went Beckett was her one and only priority, but this one was kind and Beckett liked his company. There had been other humans that she had liked even better, ones that Beckett liked even better, but they had left many months ago only to be seen on the flat glowing screen. It wasn’t the same.

“Beckett?” asked Gaius softly.

Beckett didn't look up. Lost in his work with the headphones on high, it would take more than a gentle voice to get his attention. CeeCee walked in front of the glowing screen and sat down. 

“CeeCee!?” said Beckett and he noticed his surroundings. Looking at the feet on the other side of the chair that had blocked the only way into his refuge he followed the legs up to find Gaius looking at him.

CeeCee watched as he adjusted the controls on his headset and brought the sound level of the room up to something closer to normal. Gaius moved the chair and sat down on the floor next to him.

“How is the pattern analysis going?”

“It is going well. It is complicated.”

“I figured. When do you think you will be done with it?”

“Tomorrow morning, if I don't have too many interruptions,” said Beckett.

“Would it be easier to work on it in your quarters? Or do you need the consoles in here?” asked Gaius.

“It would be easier in my quarters, but...”

“Keith shouldn’t bother you again. This is a direct request from Gold Commander Melisande. She just got finished telling him to let you do your work. That was why he was so vile. Even he knows better than to cross her too often. Why don’t you work on it there and let me know if there is anything you need?”

Beckett crawled out from under the desk and slid his dataview into his pocket. He looked around and with a leap, CeeCee jumped into his arms and crawled to her perch across his shoulders. The job alternated between horribly boring and far too exciting. This was one of the perks. CeeCee purred.

The walk was short. Beckett had quarters very close to the Tactical Command Area. But as the door closed, the chaos of the outside dissipated and calm took over. This was where Beckett was safe. Here both Beckett and CeeCee could relax. 

CeeCee watched as Beckett removed the headset and its glasses and earmuffs and set them carefully on the shelf by the door. CeeCee had never known him to go anywhere without them by choice. There had been that incident back on Teen Level when that awful girl had ripped them off his head and thrown them in the fountain. It had been entirely accidental that she had come away with some impressive scratches. At any rate, the girl had never attempted it again. It wasn't often that CeeCee went from purely comfort cat to guardian, but sometimes the situation called for extreme measures.

Beckett sat on his favorite chair and again began working on the project that he had been so involved with back in the Tactical Area. CeeCee took the opportunity to use the cat box and then curled up underneath the chair and went to sleep.

CeeCee woke up to the sounds of fists banging on the door and the muffled sounds of yelling. It wasn't an emergency alert. That was a different sound, this was just someone being angry. She trailed along, careful to avoid getting stepped on, as Beckett walked to the door.

“Get out!” screamed Keith.

CeeCee leaped from her place at Beckett’s feet and he reached out to catch her just as he had hundreds of times before. She crawled around his neck and perched there caught between the choices of trying to comfort her human and trying to make the angry violent one go away.

“Get out!” Keith screamed again.

“What!?” asked Beckett. He put his hands over his ears and tried to curl up in a ball. The noise and the people were too much. CeeCee purred as loud as she could, but it was already obvious that it wasn’t going to be enough.

A crowd was gathering. Where was the friendly kind leader? Could he make this crazy monster stop and leave her human alone?

“Keith, stop!”

The friendly kind leader appeared. It took him long enough.

“I want him gone,” continued Keith, reaching for Beckett. CeeCee concentrated on her human. If he wasn't so stressed, she would happily have taken a swipe, or three! at this lunatic.

Beckett tried to dodge and only succeeded in stumbling and almost dislodging the only thing standing between him and utter panic. CeeCee sunk her claws into his shirt carefully avoiding puncturing his skin and hoped there wouldn't be many more sharp turns.

CeeCee was wrong. Keith continued to yell and Beckett continued to move away at an increasingly frantic speed. Finally he was in the corridor with the big moving doors. He almost never went here. 

Beckett almost tripped again as he walked backwards into the moving doors, but the moving doors had moved and instead of walking into a wall he stepped in to another empty room. CeeCee wasn’t sure if crashing into a wall wouldn’t have been a better option. Beckett was terrified. She would have done more soothing of his frayed nerves if it weren’t for the fact she was struggling to simply stay with him.

The friendly kind leader shouted in Beckett’s direction, but he wasn’t acting very friendly or kind. “Beckett, head to Amber’s unit! Lucas and Megan are there. They will help!”

CeeCee hoped that Beckett had made sense of that. Lucas might have been the nice one who had left months earlier. If so, then it was likely that he would be helpful again. But first, Beckett had to get there and right now, Beckett was having a hard time simply staying upright.

The doors closed and the room moved. CeeCee began kneading his shoulder and purring. She hoped it would be enough to get him to wherever this Amber person was. The room stopped but the doors didn’t open. A good thing, maybe this would give her human a chance to gain some semblance of control.

“Find Lucas. Find Megan,” Beckett mumbled.

That was what the friendly one had said. CeeCee hoped it worked.

Beckett reached out and touched the pad with the lights on it and the room began to move again.

“Teen Level. Express belt. Lucas. Megan.”

CeeCee listened to his repetitious mumbling. Beckett did this sometimes when extremely stressed. It seemed to comfort him when even CeeCee wasn’t enough. At least he was upright and not huddled in a ball banging his head against a wall. She didn’t know how they were going to find where they needed to go, but somehow they would.

The doors opened again to a sparsely used corridor. This would be okay. Beckett could do this. CeeCee relaxed a fraction and breathed a sigh of relief. And then Becket walked down the corridor away from the quiet into chaos. CeeCee winced as she felt Beckett react to the bustle and activity. There were people. There were lights. There were sounds. There were smells. There were far too many inputs demanding attention.

Beckett stepped carefully onto the moving walkway and put his hands over his ears. CeeCee struggled to stay nestled on his shoulders. Beckett was going to need a new shirt when this was over. This one had too many holes in it already.

“Teen level, done. Express belt, done. Lucas. Megan.”

Beckett was mumbling again.

The device in his pocket let out an abrupt tone and everyone around them turned to look. Beckett didn’t seem to notice. In other circumstances CeeCee could have called his attention to it, like earlier when the friendly one had wanted to talk, but right now she was still trying to simply stay on her perch.

“Hey, sewage specialist! Your dataview is calling,” said one of the loud garishly clothed people nearby.

“Leave him alone, Franco. Can’t you see he has problems?” said someone else.

The walkways separated and the rude one moved away, but the device continued its urgent chimes. Beckett continued to not notice. Or perhaps he did. 

Beckett reached into his pocket and removed the device just as they reached a point where numerous of the walkways met. There were more people, more noise and most importantly more lights. 

“Warning, Zone bulkhead approaching!”

Beckett staggered as he moved under the signs. The dataview went flying as they were jostled by someone a bit too close for comfort. The noise, the people, the chaos was doing nothing to help him. CeeCee held on and hoped that he could move farther away from this before anything truly horrible happened.

Suddenly CeeCee was flying, the shirt was ripped and there was nothing to hold on to. CeeCee landed on all fours and yowled in fury. She was not going to be separated from her human. She dodged the foot traffic and made her way back to Beckett. He was on the ground with his hands over his eyes. Instead of over his ears. This was not going to work. 

CeeCee meowed into the closest ear and Beckett scooped her up and determinedly made his way to the nearest wall. He sat with his back to it and mumbled “Teen Level. Expressbelt. Lucas. Megan.”

She snuggled in closer and purred as loud as she could. 

CeeCee could hear the musicians long before she could see them. As if either one of them needed any more noise. They stopped at the interchange, close enough to drown out the sounds of all the other ambient noise. CeeCee tried to purr louder, but there was not any louder to purr. 

Beckett inched his way away from the cacophony and in a few minutes they were in a hallway. It was better. Anything was better. 

Someone in a cleaner uniform walked past, muttering to themself. “First they want me to clean the mess in the corridor 8 community room. Then the mess in the corridor 14 community room. These teens need to learn to clean their own mess.”

There was an open door someplace even quieter than the hallway. Beckett moved quicker than she thought he could and they were inside a room. Finally here it was quiet. Beckett sat with his back to a wall and stroked her. CeeCee was content to stay and comfort him for as long as it took. She hoped it wasn’t too long. This wasn’t going to work forever. There was no food or water for either of them here and her cat box wasn’t here, but at least her human was happier.

The minutes ticked by. CeeCee snuggled in closer. Beckett had stopped the incessant mumbling about Lucas and Megan. He had instead moved on to mumbling about her. “Focus on CeeCee purring. Focus on CeeCee purring.” For all that it was nice to be loved and helpful. CeeCee was tired of this. Her human needed help beyond what she was capable of. 

He hadn’t been in a state this bad in a long long time. Mostly the kind leader made sure to keep the monster away and teen level was a misery best left forgotten. There was nothing left to do but wait. Wait, and hope that help would come. 

And it did.

One of the kind ones from before walked in. He was wearing a headset very different from the ones that Beckett wore. CeeCee hoped he wasn’t going to need comforting too. She had enough to do working on her own human. This one would have to get his own Comfort Cat!

The kind one sat on the floor next to Beckett and spoke, “Hello, Beckett. It’s Lucas.”

CeeCee felt Beckett startle. Someone was here. His panicked petting grew more intense. She was going to need to spend some serious time cleaning her fur when this was all done. And then he calmed again. The petting grew more gentle.

“Hello, Lucas.”

The humans talked. CeeCee relaxed. This human was good for Beckett. Beckett was beginning to calm again. Maybe this nightmare would be over soon.

The other nice human appeared on a small screen. CeeCee remembered this one too. She had been kind to Beckett and CeeCee. She was the one that made sure that all the cat feeders were stocked with her favorite treats. She talked to Beckett too.

It took more time and more petting, but the kind woman from the screen appeared in person! And she had the headset and glasses! “Hello, Beckett. It’s Megan.”

This time it didn’t take long for Beckett to respond. He was doing better. 

“I can see you have had a rough day. I brought your headset and glasses.”

“Keith was horrible.”

“He was.” 

CeeCee could see her wave a device at Beckett’s head. Lucas watched anxiously. These people cared about her human. That made everything so much easier.

“The cut on your head is bleeding on your shirt. I can spray it with a pain killer and put a plaster on it so it will stop bleeding if you would like.”

“Thank you,” said Beckett and for the first time since entering this room he opened his eyes.

CeeCee moved clear of the spray and sat in the crook of Beckett’s arm. Megan sprayed and applied the plaster.

“I brought you a clean shirt too,” she said. 

“That would be good. I don’t want to look at the blood on that one.” Beckett removed the shirt and put on the clean one.

Megan held out the headset and glasses and Beckett eagerly put them in place. CeeCee crawled back to her perch across his shoulders and purred in happiness.

The humans talked. This was good. CeeCee didn’t care what they talked about so long as it didn’t upset her human. It seemed that they talked for a long time, but it was hard to tell in the small room. 

“We have a few minutes before we leave for your quiet ride. Do you want to stay in here or would you like to meet the rest of the unit?”

“I would like a few minutes and then we can go.”

“Okay.” 

They waited.

“Alright,” said Beckett after a short wait. “I think I am ready.”

“If you decide you need a break just let me or Megan know.”

Beckett nodded. CeeCee looked around. They were moving.

CeeCee looked at the assembled group. She caught a few curious glances but mostly these people seemed more concerned about the lost dataview. That wasn’t her problem.

It was a short wait and then everyone was much happier. The dataview had been found. Hopefully this meant that they could get out of this unfamiliar place with all these unfamiliar people and smells and sounds and everything and then Beckett could calm down. 

It was another moving room. This time was much better. It was just Beckett and Megan and Beckett liked Megan!

Lucas stood on another platform and talked and poked at his dataview. He was busy. But this was the kind of busy that CeeCee didn’t mind. No one was yelling and despite the unfamiliar conditions Beckett was doing alright.

“Thank you for coming to get me.”

“Your friends didn’t want to see you get hurt. Gaius called Lucas as soon as the incident with Keith happened. He is very worried about you.”

“I can call him when we get someplace safe.”

“I am sure Gaius would like that.”

CeeCee watched as they passed boxes (they were quiet), pipes (they gurgled), and other platforms (mostly empty), and traveled from wherever they had been to wherever they were going. 

Teen level had been one stressful situation after another. Working in the Telepath Unit had been only marginally better. But these people seemed less prone to outbursts and sudden moves if only because they were calmer under typical conditions. 

CeeCee snuggled onto Beckett’s shoulder. He absently reached up to scratch her head. Maybe this horrible day would end soon. And she could take a nap. 


End file.
